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My elderly mother loved going grocery shopping with me, although it tired her out. She wandered happily through the store by my side, clutching the handle of a rolling shopping cart. She tended to smile at, and talk to, just about everyone who passed by.

Strangers frequently stopped to say, “You’re so lucky you have your mother. I wish mine were still alive.”

Every once in a while after a rocky night with my mother, I was tempted to say, “Well, our life together isn’t all peaches and cream.”

You know that day when you plan your life. You will get married, have some children, travel, and grow old together. He laughs about it that he will be chasing you around with his cane in the nursing home. Then one day you wake up and the doctor is telling you that the one you love has Alzheimer. To start making plans with how and when life is going to end. He is young by the standard of what people call old age...only 60 years young.

I was the primary caregiver for my mother, Mama Hawk, for 5 years. She lost her battle with Alzheimer's in June 2012. After her death, I decided to share what I learned and documented it at mamahawksjourney.com in hopes that it may help others on the same journey.